Bloomberg to Tap Robert Steel as Deputy Mayor

Robert Steel, former CEO of Wachovia Corp. and an undersecretary in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, will be named Tuesday as New York City’s deputy mayor for economic development, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Steel is the third high-profile appointment to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s cabinet of deputy mayors this year. The mayor, who began his third term on New Year’s Day, has lost several key members of his inner circle but has pledged to make this term his most successful.

The mayor is expected to make Steel’s appointment official on Tuesday.

Steel, who spent nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs, will replace Robert Lieber, who is leaving City Hall to return to the private sector. Steel will be the third person in this key slot since Bloomberg became mayor.

In April, Bloomberg tapped Stephen Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis, to be deputy mayor for operations, replacing longtime confidante Ed Skyler. In March, the mayor appointed Howard Wolfson as deputy mayor for government affairs, replacing Kevin Sheekey.

The exodus since the mayor took the oath of office in January has left Bloomberg, for the first time in his mayoralty, bereft of nearly every top confidante who helped sweep him into office in 2002. First Deputy Mayor Patty Harris is the only remaining top aide at City Hall who has been with the mayor since he launched his first campaign in June 2001.